Technical Field
The present invention relates to a connector in which one connector part of a housing is formed of two members.
Related Art
Examples of this kind of connectors of the past include a connector disclosed in JP 2008-52975 A. A connector 100 includes, as illustrated in FIGS. 16A to 17B, a first connector part 101 arranged in a stay member 130 and a second connector part 110 arranged in an accommodating member 131.
The first connector part 101 includes a first terminal 102 and a first housing 103 for holding the first terminal 102. The first housing 103 includes a first lock part 104 formed on the outer periphery. The first lock part 104 has a groove 106 formed at an intermediate part of the first lock part 104.
The second connector part 110 includes a second terminal 111, an inner housing 112 for holding the second terminal 111, and a sheath housing 113 arranged on the outer periphery of the inner housing 112 in a movable manner relative to the inner housing 112. The inner housing 112 includes an elastically deformable lock arm 114. The lock arm 114 has a locking part 114a at a tip end of the lock arm 114. The locking part 114a is outwardly deformable by the elastic deformation of the lock arm 114. The sheath housing 113 includes a sheath lock part 115. The sheath lock part 115 is formed to be outwardly deformable by the elastic deformation.
When the first connector part 101 is moved in a connector fitting direction, as illustrated in FIG. 16A, the tip end of the first lock part 104 comes to interfere with the locking part 114a of the lock arm 114 in the inner housing 112. When the first connector part 101 is further moved in the connector fitting direction I from this position, as illustrated in FIG. 16B, the lock arm 114 and the sheath lock part 115 outwardly deform by the elastic deformation, allowing the first connector part 101 to be moved in the connector fitting direction I. When the locking part 114a of the lock arm 114 reaches the position of the groove 106 of the first lock part 104, as illustrated in FIG. 17A, the locking part 114a of the lock arm 114 enters the groove 106 due to elastic returning deformation. Thus, the first housing 103 and the inner housing 112 come to a fitting completed position at which the first terminal 102 and the second terminal 111 are in contact with each other appropriately.
The locking part 114a of the lock arm 114 enters the groove 106 to release the locked condition between the locking part 114a of the lock arm 114 and the sheath lock part 115, allowing the sheath housing 113 to move relative to the inner housing 112. When the first connector part 101 is moved from this position in the connector fitting direction I, the inner housing 112 moves with the first housing 103 to cause the locking part 114a of the lock arm 114 to climb over the sheath lock part 115. The first housing 103 and the inner housing 112 continue to move, as illustrated in FIG. 17B, and the sheath lock part 115 enters a locking groove 107 of the stay member 130 to bring the sheath housing 113 to a sheath fitted position. The connector fitting movement is thus completed.
At the sheath fitted position of the sheath housing 113 of the past example described above, the sheath housing 113 prevents the elastic deformation of the lock arm 114. This securely prevents unlocking between the first lock part 104 of the first connector part 101 and the lock arm 114 of the second connector part 110.
In addition, the connector can have an excellent anti-vibration characteristic if the first connector part 101 is fixed on a connector mounting part, because the housing of the second connector part 110 is formed of two members including the inner housing 112 and the separately formed sheath housing 113. Specifically, the second connector part side fitted in the first connector part 101 has a smaller mass compared to the case in which the housing of the second connector part 110 is formed of one member. As a result, the vibration caused by external vibration can be suppressed.